Who determines the value of a used car?

How do you determine the value of a car you need to sell?  Are you going to look into the Newspaper and compare your car with similar cars?  Are you going to log onto the web and check out web listings?  May be you will do both?  Whatever system you use, remember the following.

The vehicles you see are there because they have NOT sold.  These cars may very well be over priced relative to their age, condition, and distance travelled.  But, you don’t know what their condition is.  There are always some people lucky, selling their car quickly, others are not so lucky.

More and more people check out the car they intend to buy via the web.  They pin point the actual car and then inspect the car for damage etc.  If your car does not measure up, if you don’t have an image or if your car price is uncompetitive you may not sell it.  The best guide is the number of initial enquiries you receive.  If people don’t enquire, than the car is perceived to be too expensive relative to the market.  If people come and inspect the car and than not proceed it may be that the condition of the car is not as good as what it could be.  You may have to lower your price to make the car more attractive.

There are web sites with listings between 90,000 and 100,000 plus vehicles, that is a lot of competition.  To say, but my car is a good one, it has “never given me any trouble” is not going to sell the car.  You need much more!  Contrariry to folklore, modern cars, provided they are well maintained of course, do not break down, none of them do.  Dealers do not set the price of a used car, nor does the NRMA, nor does an Insurance company or the Red Book.  And, whilst on Books, be it the Red Book or Glasses Dealer Guide, they are just that - guides.  Insurance companies use these books to assist their clerks in determining an approximate insurance value.  The higher the value, the higher the risk, and that means higher premiums for the Insurer.

Prices for used cars are set by the market place, that is the buyer and to some extend the seller.  If the sellers outstrip the buyers, there will be downward pressure on prices.  And, there are over clearly well over 90,000 vehicles to be sold.  Make sure your is priced to sell.

For further information contact www.carsolutions.com.au or write to info@carsolutions.com.au